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The House of People’s Representatives (HPR), meeting on Tuesday, passed a resolution granting the Ethiopian National Electoral Board (NEBE) permission to resume its preparations and hold the sixth national election this Ethiopian fiscal year, as the government moves forward. with the opening. schools nationwide.
It should be remembered that due to the coronavirus pandemic, Ethiopia had postponed the periodic national elections for the House of People’s Representatives and the Regional Legislative Councils, which were scheduled for last August.
This time, the latest decision comes a week after Health Minister Lia Tadesse (MD) presented the report and the resolution of her ministry that suggested the possibility of holding the elections. In this report, the Minister told the House that, this time, the nation could launch the election, amid the pandemic, taking additional precautions to prevent the spread of COVID-19 during election day.
After hearing that report, MPs sent the report and motion on the response to the COVID-19 epidemic and subsequent steps to the Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Democracy in collaboration with the Standing Committee on Women, Youth and Social Affairs. for more scrutiny.
The head of the Standing Committee for Women, Youth and Social Affairs, Abeba Yoseph, presented a resolution highlighting crucial issues that would help prevent the spread of the virus, based on the guidelines and recommendations given by the World Health Organization ( WHO) and the Ethiopian. Institute of Public Health (EPHI).
Lia said it is important to draft and design a new code of conduct and guidelines that take the virus into account. Parliamentarians, for their part, stressed the need for urgent precautionary measures, including continuous awareness-raising campaigns, before the elections, at the community level.
During the discussion, the experience of other countries was taken into account, including countries that have postponed voting. In Africa, Guinea, Burundi, Mali and Zimbabwe went ahead with their elections by taking various steps to reduce the risk of contracting the disease for voters and election officials.
With eight abstentions and one vote against the resolution, the Chamber endorsed the resolution by a majority of votes, giving the electoral board the green light to resume preparations for the election.
It should be recalled that at the beginning of the month, the Tigray Regional Administration had held its own regional elections, despite the federal government’s unwillingness to recognize the election.
In addition to the elections, the Chamber deliberated and gave its consent to the government to open schools with adequate protection measures. Abeba told MPs that due to COVID-19, more than 26 million students have been out of schools across the country since March this year. In addition, he stressed that undergraduate studies have also been affected.
Abeba further said that the nation’s sports sector, and as a result the country, may have to exit continental and global competitions.
